March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.

Hildegarde M Ritchie

My name, Diana, is not one that is anywhere in my family tree. My Dad used to tease me, however that they ALMOST named me after his Aunt Hildegard!! My Mom always said that they never even considered that, but to this day my Dad will sometime says, “We really should have named you after Hildegarde and maybe she would have left you some money” or variations on that theme.

I do something very similar with my nieces. I tell them from time to time that I wanted their Mom to name one of them Magdalena. That is a name that appears on the Swiss-German side of my Dad’s family. I rather like it myself, but my sister wouldn’t go for it. Like my Dad, however, that doesn’t keep me from bringing it up to them in a variety of ways.